The Venting Chamber

[TheGoldenParadox]

Post here if your life sucks or you just want to have someplace to scream about something without making noise!

Text size 500, bolding, and all caps are encouraged here!

[schadd_]

had a show today! it went well, we opened for a mediumly known comedian

[vonflare]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[DirtyDishSoap]

--

[Majiffy]

I can see why your blog didn't take off

[Brandi]

i'm so scared right now

[Thestatusquo]

0 chambers venting in this thread.

I am disappoint.

[Thestatusquo]

also jfc that post is god damned terrible.

[MagnaofIllusion]

I propose that DishSoap is the latest version of ReaperCharlie ...

Discuss ...

[RadiantCowbells]

I am reapercharlie.

[Kublai Khan]

My oldest kid got diagnosed with ADD today. I love my wife, but she shared this news with me by trying to repeat as much as she could remember from the psychologist. Including stuff like statistically he's going to have a shorter lifespan, be more likely to land in jail, get addicted to drugs, less likely to finish college or possibly high school, etc.. I think she meant it as just background information, but i'm fucking reeling. We had discussed the possibility (hence why we got him evaluated), but I was kinda in denial of the possibility. I teach kids with behaviors way more extreme and my kid didn't seem to be anything like that.

I guess we'll start medication and go from there. It's just the first real roadblock in his life. It just really hurts knowing that he's going to struggle not just with one thing but many potential things and I feel helpless. He just seems so vulnerable and all I can do is hope that maybe the right medication will help. I hate trusting a doctor I haven't even met yet with the wellbeing and future of my kid. I hate trusting the field of psychology because it's always seemed to me to be one of the most inexact of sciences. Because it depends on personal physiology and brain chemistry and we don't seem to have that super understood yet. Just ends up being a lot of guesswork. I know I'm being unfair but this is just becoming stream of consciousness at this point.

Anyways. That's my venting for this evening.

[vonflare]

There's lots of people with ADD that live completely normal lives. I'm sure the drastic risks associated with it are very rare. Just be as supportive as you can and the rest is out of your hands

[Thestatusquo]

For what its worth, I got falsely diagnosed with add when I was a kid.

I don't want to go into too many details but lets just say that the medication kind of fucked me up really badly.

I would strongly suggest getting a second opinion

Signed,
Shea

[drealmerz7]

there's no such thing as ADD, so no medication is going to do anything good except maybe some surface behavioral shit that will just totally mess up the brainchemistry and make things harder for him

remove artificial colors and additives from his diet, teach him methods of focus and meditation, I don't know how old he is, but know it's not normal to put growing active kids in a seat for 8 consecutive hours and expect them to take it sitting down

[Flubbernugget]

Has your child been offered any other treatment before drugs? They're a last resort at best.

[hiplop]

For what its worth, I got falsely diagnosed with add when I was a kid.

I don't want to go into too many details but lets just say that the medication kind of fucked me up really badly.

I would strongly suggest getting a second opinion

Signed,
Shea

[RadiantCowbells]

For what its worth, I got falsely diagnosed with add when I was a kid.

I don't want to go into too many details but lets just say that the medication kind of fucked me up really badly.

I would strongly suggest getting a second opinion

Signed,
Shea

[RadiantCowbells]

Not that I was falsely diagnosed with ADD: but diagnosing kids with ADD is happening far too often.

[Kublai Khan]

First off, I know there is such a thing as ADD. I've met plenty of kids who have ADD or ADHD and as much as I'm not a fan of medication, there are many instances where medication is definitely needed and helps. I'm just not sure if my son fits that criteria.

He's 8 years old, and he doesn't stay in a seat for 8 hours. The elementary school he goes to is a Grade A magnet school. It's pretty active and dynamic and it's not the rigid school environment you're thinking of (actually very few are that way these days but I digress).

One of the main issue has been his schoolwork. His handwriting tends to be very sloppy. I chalked it up to being left-handed and thought his fine motor control would get better, but that's not it. If he really tries one-on-one, he can make good letters. But he just writes at top speed and his writing because a scrawl. He'll also rush through assignments even though there's literally nothing to do afterwards and in his rush, he'll make really obvious mistakes. Like just before spring break he was doing math with coins in his math class. I know he knows how to count coins because we've worked on saving up for things and he's counted change plenty of times to figure out what he needs. But as I'd go through his homework or class assignments and he'd mix up the simplest things.

Behavior had been an issue as well. On his take-home sheet, he'll get a sticker for good behavior, a blank for a warning, and a conduct code number for a specific rule violation. He started off the year with mostly stickers, then the occasional blank, then the occasional number. But by the time February rolled around, it was nothing but numbers with no sticker in sight. The main problems were following directions, keeping his hands to himself, and talking. We set a meeting with the principal and teacher and started a "points sheet" to break down the day to AM/PM and how well he is following each target behavior and his behavior improved tremendously. Just having a shorter focus does seem to help curb his disruptive behavior.

Around the home, things are different. Most of the biggest issues with behavior exist because he has a 3 year old sister. So there is a tendency towards silliness which can result in "running/chasing/screaming/laughing" type play that drives us nuts. And sometimes it takes a few times asking to get him to stop. There are issues with sharing toys, etc.. But that's pretty normal. He tends to get really focused on making his Lego Technic creations and keeps bugging for more kits. He has a few chores like feeding the dogs and doing laundry. He can cook some basic meals. He loves doing science experiments. He is annoyingly silly at times (sorry, i'm trying to be honest). Like if he's doing some simple task (like walking through the house), then he'll choose to do it a silly way. Like making obnoxious mouth sounds or walking with a weird shuffle. I don't think it's outside of normal behavior for his age, but I feel like it should be happening at a lower frequency. Plus he still has a lot of issue with certain food textures but I don't think that's attention related.

Writing that all out, the issue is much more at school than home. But at home it's basically one-on-one attention. At school, he has to follow the directions without us supervising him and there is issues. I do share the concern about drugs mixing with a developing mind and do think that his behaviors seem manageable with just low-doses of positive reinforcement. Just.. I don't know. My head is still swimming. No decisions have to be made right away, and I think I'll definitely be taking off work to meet with the psychologist on the next visit.

[Majiffy]

My friend was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, was on Riddilin until he became an adult and left home. Doing just fine now. Nasty stuff.

[Flubbernugget]

Yeah, unless he's hurting people when he puts his hands on them (doesn't seem the case in this context), you need to get a second opinion on drugging your kid.

When you get to the office, if you see lots of medication posters/ads, that's a red flag.

[Flubbernugget]

Around the home, things are different. Most of the biggest issues with behavior exist because he has a 3 year old sister. So there is a tendency towards silliness which can result in "running/chasing/screaming/laughing" type play that drives us nuts. And sometimes it takes a few times asking to get him to stop. There are issues with sharing toys, etc.. But that's pretty normal. He tends to get really focused on making his Lego Technic creations and keeps bugging for more kits. He has a few chores like feeding the dogs and doing laundry. He can cook some basic meals. He loves doing science experiments. He is annoyingly silly at times (sorry, i'm trying to be honest). Like if he's doing some simple task (like walking through the house), then he'll choose to do it a silly way. Like making obnoxious mouth sounds or walking with a weird shuffle. I don't think it's outside of normal behavior for his age, but I feel like it should be happening at a lower frequency. Plus he still has a lot of issue with certain food textures but I don't think that's attention related.

I'm 22, and I think the only things in here I don't do at one point or another involve sharing toys, and keeping myself in situations where I know I'm annoying people. Like, there's still times where I find myself running through the house (definitely a rarity now, but it happens). I broke one of my toenails from it like a month ago. Whatever. And I still slide on hardwood floors with socks like a fucking passion. The obnoxious sounds I used to make just slowly turned into random bouts of vocal warm ups. And I'm sitting on a social media site instead of doing my homework right now.

I mean, I can't speak on the frequency that you're seeing, but my parents used to be able to tell we were physically sick when we *weren't* exhibiting these behaviors.

[Flubbernugget]

I guess what it all ultimately goes back to though is that it really doesn't sound like he's hurting himself or others

[DirtyDishSoap]

I can see why your blog didn't take off

I know.

[MagnaofIllusion]

there's no such thing as ADD, so no medication is going to do anything good except maybe some surface behavioral shit that will just totally mess up the brainchemistry and make things harder for him

My wife's DSM V manual pages 31-35 says you are full of shit. Don't talk about things you clearly are not educated on.